The document provides an overview of an academic library session on advanced legal research skills. The session covers finding journal articles, using subject pages and databases like Westlaw and Lexis, developing effective search strategies, evaluating search results, and accessing resources through other libraries. It includes exercises for students to practice each part of the legal research process, from planning searches to conducting them to assessing what they find. Tips are also provided on setting up alerts, citing sources, and getting help from librarians.

1. Jennie Wilson and Catherine Parkin
Academic Librarians for Law
The Library: Advanced
Legal research skills

2. Today’s Session
• Subject pages
• Finding journal articles
• Advanced search techniques /Boolean searching
• Current awareness
• Using other libraries
• 3 main parts to the session, each with an exercise
attached
• 1. Planning your search
• 2. Conducting your search
• 3. Evaluating your search results

3. Library Subject Pages
• Library Online > Resources > For Your Subject >
Law
• Acts as subject gateway providing links to useful
websites and legal resources
• Broken down into useful sections, such as Legal
Citation, Legal Research, Non-UK Legal Sources etc
• Constantly updated by the Academic Librarian
http://libguides.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/law

4. Journal Articles
• Periodicals – academic, practitioner, weeklies
• Give insight into the significance of a case and
relate it to other cases and decisions
• Discuss the issues surrounding a law
• You need to know which journal it was published in
and which volume (and issue) number
• Many available electronically from off-campus
• Printed ones - shelved separately from the books,
within the Law Collection - shelved alphabetically by
journal title

5. Journal Articles
• Searching for articles in legal databases
• Two main legal databases
• Westlaw – journal index plus around 60 full-text
journals
• Lexis Library - journal index plus around 60 full-text
journals
• Each one has different journals
• Each database has some journals it has full access
to and some where it only has an abstract
•

6. Define your topic
• Note down keywords/phrases that describe your topic
• Write down any synonyms or related terms
• Note down any variations in spelling or American terms
• Decide on the time span involved. How far back do you
need to look for relevant information?
• You may also want to consider whether you want to limit
your search to a particular geographical area
• Your final list of keywords and phrases - or search terms
- will help you make the best use of the databases

7. Keywords-example
“What factors affect adolescents’ fear of crime?”
• Break down into concepts or keywords.
• Concept 1. “factors”
• Concept 2. “adolescents”
• Concept 3. “fear of crime”

8. Synonyms/related terms
• Concept 1. “factors”
causes, reasons
• Concept 2. “adolescents”
youths, young people, teenagers
• Concept 3. “fear of crime”
use specific crimes, such as mugging, robbery,
etc?
Good idea to search for just one of your concepts to begin with

9. Boolean Logic
Boolean Logic - process of linking
concepts in order to narrow or expand a
search
• AND links two or more terms and
narrows a search, retrieving only
references containing at least one
term from each concept
• OR links two or more terms and
expands or broadens a search
retrieving all references containing at
least one of the search concepts
entered
• NOT narrows a search by removing
all references that contain a
particular word or phrase

10. • Individual task- 5 mins.
• Using the sheets provided make a note of
your topic and break down into “key words”.
• Consider any synonyms that might help and
write these down also.
• Design your search strategy using the
concepts and synonyms, and Boolean
operators (and, or, not)/truncation
symbols etc.
Task 1: Planning your search strategy

11. • Don’t just stick to one database
• Westlaw has some journals which Lexis doesn’t
(and vice versa)
• Also lots more relevant information in other
databases, e.g.
• Proquest
• Science Direct
• Academic Search Complete
• ETHOS (good for finding dissertations)
Exploring other resources

12. Examples
Westlaw
• Journals
• Simple free text search –” Consumer credit agreements”
• Then advanced keyword search –” Consumer credit
agreements
• Proquest Journals
• Do simple search
• “war on terror”
• Limit location to UK
• Limit to scholarly journals

13. • A Library search engine providing fast, easy access
to many Library resources in a single search.
• Some resources; in particular Westlaw and Lexis,
are not yet searchable on Discover.
• Click on Geography from the menu on the left side of
the results screen to limit your search to the UK
http://libraryonline.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/pages/home
“Human Rights Act” AND defamation
In results use menu on left to limit to Great Britain
Use DISCOVER

14. • Infotrac Newsstand – over 1,000 newspapers,
including local press. No images. Can create
alerts. Some coverage goes back 20 years.
• Press Display - Over 2700 news titles from 100
countries. You can search and view content and
visual layout of publications. 1 year back issue
coverage. App for Android and IoS.
http://libguides.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/resources/news_resources
Using newspapers

15. • Individual task- 10 mins.
• Choose one of the databases we have
looked at during the session
• Search the database using the search
strategy you created in the last task
• See if you can find any relevant articles –I’ll
come round to see how you’re getting on
Task 2 : Searching for literature

16. • Ever found a potentially useful article via a database, but could
only view the abstract?
• DID YOU KNOW we often have access to the article through
another provider!
• Finding an article when you know the name of the journal
• Library Homepage> Resources> Journals > Ejournals A-Z
• Type the title of the journal in the search box e.g. Family Law
• Choose the version of the journal you want
(content is the same from each publisher, just
make sure they have the year you want)
Finding specific journal articles

17. Search alerts
• Set up an account on Discover to use alerts
• Google Scholar offers email alerts
• Run a search and look for the Create alert
icon to send results to your email account
• ZETOC is a comprehensive research
database. Set up personalised email Zetoc
Alerts or RSS feeds to track the latest articles
or journal titles related to your interests

18. Citation alerts
• Search for an article with Google Scholar. In the bottom left of the
article's citation will be a Cited by field.
• Once you view the articles that cite your original search you can create
alert. It will confirm your Alert query and email address before you can
create the alert.
• Other options for citation searching are Scopus, and Web of
Knowledge. You can search these databases for articles
that cite a known author or work

19. • During your research, you need to source, evaluate
and synthesise literature from a variety of sources
• The emphasis should be on using quality information
rather than just a large quantity of information
• You need to decide which literature to include
• So -before using any literature in your research you should
evaluate its worth
• Group Exercise- 5 mins
• Working in pairs, select one of the items you found whilst
searching
• Work through the evaluation checklist provided
Task 3 : Evaluating your literature

20. Using Other Libraries
• SCONUL Access – access to other university libraries
• Apply online at www.sconul.ac.uk
• Access to approx 100 different university libraries in the UK
• Inter-Library Loan –borrow books and get sent journal
articles posted to you
• Order online via Library tab on MyBeckett
• Get a form from the Library Help Desk and hand in there
• £2 per item

21. Where to go for Help in the Library
• Library Webpages
• Help and Information Point
• Email or Chat via Library
Webpages > Contact us
Academic Librarians for Law
• Catherine Parkin and Jennie
Wilson
parkin.wilson@leedsbeckett.ac.uk